Tampa Film Fan

film fan finding:little miss sunshine

Little Miss Sunshine is hilariously disturbing.  Or disturbingly hilarious.  I’m not sure which.  An extremely dysfunctional family takes a road trip and encounters all sorts of problems along the way.  The characters:  the overly-positive, failed motivational author father (Greg Kinnear); the kind, slightly ditzy and overwhelmed mother (Toni Collette); the gay, suicidal, depressed, unemployed uncle (Steve Carell); the obscene, foul-mouthed grandfather (Alan Arkin); the angry, silent teenage son (Paul Dano); and the so-ugly-she’s-cute, beauty pageant contestant daughter (Abigail Breslin). The road trip: the daughter needs to get to the Little Miss Sunshine pageant by the registration deadline, they don’t have enought money to fly, and because certain family members can’t be left alone, the whole family has to travel together in a beat-up VW van.

When leaving the theater, I couldn’t decide if this movie was offensive or motivational.  Was Little Miss Sunshine offensive because of the foul language, unpleasant characters and the fact that the talent contest scene, while funny, really wasn’t something to laugh about, once you thought about it?  Or was it motivational because at its core, Little Miss Sunshine is about the bonds of family — how no matter what else happens, your family is there for you?

All I know is that I have never laughed out loud in a theater as much as I did in this movie.

Film Fan Finding: A